Abstract
The association between infections occurring in the first 2 years of life and development of eczema was investigated in 1,782 control children from a national population-based case-control study in the United Kingdom conducted over the period 1991-1996. Dates of eczema and infectious diagnoses were ascertained from contemporaneously collected primary care records. Children diagnosed with eczema before the age of 2 years had more prior clinically diagnosed infections recorded than did children without eczema (rate ratio = 1.26, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.18, 1.36). The difference in infection rates between children with and without eczema was apparent from birth and throughout the first 2 years of life. As expected, compared with children of second or higher birth order, those firstborn were at increased risk of eczema (p = 0.020); however, the relation between eczema and prior infection was evident only among children of second or higher birth order and not among firstborn children (rate ratio = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.32, 1.59, and rate ratio = 1.08, 95% CI: 0.98, 1.20, respectively). The authors' results are consistent with the notion that the association between birth order and eczema is unlikely to be attributable to variations in early infectious exposure.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1182-1187 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | American Journal of Epidemiology |
| Volume | 167 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 15 May 2008 |
Keywords
- birth order
- child
- eczema
- hygiene
- infection
- KINGDOM CHILDHOOD-CANCER
- ATOPIC-DERMATITIS
- HYGIENE HYPOTHESIS
- ALLERGIC DISEASE
- SIBSHIP SIZE
- RISK-FACTORS
- FAMILY-SIZE
- HAY-FEVER
- FOLLOW-UP
- ASTHMA